A convicted European drug trafficker dubbed the “Mafia’s foreign minister” will be deported to Italy after his capture in Caracas in a joint operation by Venezuelan and Italian police, authorities said on Tuesday.
Salvatore Miceli was caught at a Caracas hotel on Saturday, Venezuelan police said. He will be deported to Italy “in the coming days,” Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami told reporters.
Miceli was one of Europe’s top five drug traffickers, said Captain Antonello Parasiliti of the Carabinieri police in Trapani, who led the Italian police operation to arrest Miceli in Venezuela.
Parasiliti said during a telephone interview that Miceli worked as a middleman between Italy’s and South America’s organized crime groups, leading fellow mobsters to call him the “Mafia’s foreign minister” and “the chicken that lays golden eggs.”
Miceli had been under surveillance by Italian and Venezuelan police for three days before he was captured late Saturday, Italian police said.
Italian police said two other Italian suspects were also detained. They have not been identified.
Venezuelan authorities say Miceli is suspected of trafficking cocaine, heroin and morphine.
INTERPOL
Interpol secretary-general Ronald Noble congratulated Italian and Venezuelan police in a statement on Monday, saying Miceli’s capture “will seriously undermine a close network of transnational organized crime groups.”
Miceli, 63, was born in Salemi, a town in western Sicily, and followed in the footsteps of his grandfather — local Mafia boss Salvatore Zizzo, Parasiliti said.
In the 1970s, Miceli was allegedly involved in a series of ransom kidnappings that helped fund drug trafficking clans in nearby Trapani.
Miceli was arrested in the early 1990s on drug trafficking and Mafia charges, but was later freed while awaiting trial and went on the run after being convicted in 2001, Parasiliti said.
He said a 2003 probe uncovered Miceli’s role as an intermediary between South American drug cartels, the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and Calabria’s ’Ndrangheta — leading authorities to issue another arrest warrant.
UNHARMED
Venezuelan TV on Monday showed police leading a handcuffed Miceli for forensic testing to demonstrate that he was not mistreated prior to deportation.
El Aissami said over the weekend that Miceli apparently tried to alter his features with plastic surgery, but Parasiliti dismissed that claim, saying the man looked very similar to photos taken 10 years ago, only older.
To avoid capture, Miceli ensured that people who came to meet him started out early in the morning — reaching him in the evening after changing clothes and taking elaborate routes to elude any followers, Parasiliti said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s